Jay Silverman

Ice Hockey
    Ice Hockey may very well be one of my first gaming memories.  Some good friends of our family, the Smiths, owned this game and played it religiously.  I liked the game a lot, too.  Unfortunately, I would get routinely trampled by the computer and I would get more of a shellacking from the Smith boys.  Some of those scores ranged from 34-3.  No joke.  When I got a bit older, I felt like picking this one up for nostalgia sake.  The game stands the test of time.


    Part of what made me such a poor player at the age of 3 is that that I would always pick America, while my opponent would take Canada or Russia.  Ice Hockey lets you pick 6 teams: USA, Canada, Sweden, Russia, Sweden, Poland and Czechoslovakia.  Some folks think that the only difference between the teams is color, although I am not a proponent of that theory.  I see differences between a strong team like Canada and a weaker team like Sweden.


   The graphics in this game are fun.  Little cutesy guys running around with sticks is funny to watch and entertaining graphically.  The zamboni is somewhat well animated.  The players, who range from skinny twirps to medium-sized men to Cartman-wannabes, are all well animated and very fun to watch as they skate all around.  The sound in this game is pretty good.  The basic theme song gets a tad repetitive at times, but still strong enough to carry you through.  The opening theme song is pretty good and will stick in your mind.  For some, that is a good thing.  For others, a bad think by all means.  The control here isn't bad.  It will take a little while to learn, but once you get the hang of it, it's smooth sailing.  Part of what makes it hard is that you are controlling all four men on the ice, which takes a little while to learn, but as I said, once you can learn it, it's no problem.


    This game is very fun and is a good party game for two people.  If you like the whole cutesy-ness of the whole game and don't expect all sorts of rugged fighting from hockey games, this is your thing.  If you're expecting to see Wayne Gretzky or Mark Messier, then I wouldn't buy this one.  If you are a hockey fan who didn't really like Blades of Steel, then I would go for this.  If you are a hockey fan who is expecting the fighting of Blades of Steel, I wouldn't buy it.  If you are someone who is doing research on video games, and you want to see something that every hockey game designer should pay attention to, then this is a must buy.  All in all, a very solid title that is worth a look.


Rating:4 1/2 Stars.

4 1/2 stars
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Jay's Codes:

Ice Hockey:Hold A+B on both controllers, start on 1, at title screen , no goalies same thing but at team selection screen, fast puck.